Norway puts smokers out in the cold

Norway is poised to deal the tobacco industry a massive psychological blow and become the first country to impose a nationwide ban on smoking in restaurants, bars, nightclubs, hotels and cafes.

In a move likely to be replicated by other European states, Norway's centre-right government has pledged a total ban as early as 2004. Some states and cities in the US, Australia and Canada have imposed such a ban at a local level but as yet, no country has banned smoking in every restaurant and bar.

Oslo's initiative comes just days after a New York housing cooperative said it would not sell its apartments to smokers.

Oil-rich Norway already has one of the world's strictest anti-smoking policies and smoking in public places, at work, and on public transport has been banned since 1988.

Alarmed at the numbers dying from passive smoking - up to 500 deaths a year out of a population of 4.5m - Oslo has decided to go a step further.

"It will mean restrictions for those who smoke but I believe that it will lead to improved public health in general," said Dagfinn Hoybraten, Norway's health minister.

"We will be restrictive and there will be no exceptions. More people die from passive smoking every year than are killed in road accidents, and waiters and bartenders have a higher incidence of lung cancer than any other occupation."

He said protection of staff and guests are the main reasons behind the proposed ban.

Research concludes that passive smoking can lead to heart disease, strokes and cancer although the tobacco industry claims a definitive link has yet to be proven.

At present, bars and restaurants in Norway are obliged to have separate non-smoking sections, although the rules are rarely enforced.

Under the new system - which will need parliamentary approval - smoking will only be tolerated on outside restaurant and bar terraces. Anyone found breaking the new rules will be subject to a heavy fine.

"A total ban will have a positive health effect for employees in bars and restaurants, and employers will have lower expenses related to sick leave," said Mr Hoybraten.

A study in California, where a similar ban is already in force, found that bar and restaurant workers' health showed a marked improvement just four weeks after a ban was introduced, he added.

Norway's decision to go for an all-out ban was welcomed by anti-smoking campaigners.

"The whole history of this is that where one country takes the lead others will follow and learn from its experience," said Clive Bates, director of the UK-based anti-smoking lobby Ash.

"Tobacco companies fear restrictions on public smoking more than anything else because they know that if it becomes difficult to smoke in public people will just give up."

Juliette Torres from smokers' rights group Forest called the ban "an extreme reaction to a perceived problem".

She said: "We don't believe governments should be getting involved in this. It should be a matter for individual proprietors."